Thermal Comfort and Energy Consumption Of a Typical Office Building - A parametric study using IDA ICE

According to Hoppe’s study (1998) most of the people living in urban areas are spending more than 90% of their time in air conditioned indoor spaces. Same study also suggests that estimated costs of unideal thermal environment are higher than the energy cost which would be spent to improve the conditions to the ideal standards. The traditional cost calculation methods usually take the energy demand of heating and cooling systems of the building into account; however the potential health and productivity benefits are often disregarded.
Thermal comfort has been studies in several ways. Theoretical studies were mostly based on energy equations which are built in between human and environment and required very extensive mathematical work. Practical studies on the other hand were done by experimenting
humans under various thermal environments, which were time consuming and could be misleading because of the personal opinions of people regarding to comfort. Compared those
two methods, measuring thermal comfort by using simulation software gave the benefit of both by being able to simulate many conditions at once and carrying out the huge mathematical work by the aid of computers. Increased reliability in the measurement incentivized several
standardization organizations around the world and standards are created.
In this report, how much of an impact do the selected parameters make on the thermal comfort and annual energy demand have been investigated by making experiments using a simulation software called IDA ICE (Indoor Climate and Energy) on an artificial building designed for a typical office use. In other words, the report aims to investigate what consequences occur when the actual conditions in the building are varied from the ideal state. As a secondary purpose of the study the annual energy demand of the building under different settings is examined. By analyzing the building from two perspectives simultaneously, it is aimed to find out if there is an observable correlation between comfort and energy aspects of the simulation.
In order to observe the change in the thermal comfort, the case building is simulated under five different settings. The iterations started with an ideal case, where the heating and cooling units had unlimited capacity. It proceeded with replacing the ideal units with designed ones then progressed with applying different scheduling, changing occupant position inside the room and installment of external shadings as the final case. From the simulation results it is found thatthe building showed best comfort performance with ideal or large capacity heaters and coolers
but it came with an overbearing energy cost. Taking pecific measures to reduce energy consumption have proved to be successful although sacrificing from comfort slightly.
The comparative analysis indicates that there is a semi-situational relationship between two aspects. While thermal comfort is relatively easy to maintain, keeping energy consumption atacceptable levels is equally hard. If the goal is to achieve a better grade of building certification,
it is a necessity to take improving measures for both aspects simultaneously.

BibTeX @mastersthesis{Güngör2015,author={Güngör, Gökhan},title={Thermal Comfort and Energy Consumption Of a Typical Office Building - A parametric study using IDA ICE},abstract={According to Hoppe’s study (1998) most of the people living in urban areas are spending more than 90% of their time in air conditioned indoor spaces. Same study also suggests that estimated costs of unideal thermal environment are higher than the energy cost which would be spent to improve the conditions to the ideal standards. The traditional cost calculation methods usually take the energy demand of heating and cooling systems of the building into account; however the potential health and productivity benefits are often disregarded.
Thermal comfort has been studies in several ways. Theoretical studies were mostly based on energy equations which are built in between human and environment and required very extensive mathematical work. Practical studies on the other hand were done by experimenting
humans under various thermal environments, which were time consuming and could be misleading because of the personal opinions of people regarding to comfort. Compared those
two methods, measuring thermal comfort by using simulation software gave the benefit of both by being able to simulate many conditions at once and carrying out the huge mathematical work by the aid of computers. Increased reliability in the measurement incentivized several
standardization organizations around the world and standards are created.
In this report, how much of an impact do the selected parameters make on the thermal comfort and annual energy demand have been investigated by making experiments using a simulation software called IDA ICE (Indoor Climate and Energy) on an artificial building designed for a typical office use. In other words, the report aims to investigate what consequences occur when the actual conditions in the building are varied from the ideal state. As a secondary purpose of the study the annual energy demand of the building under different settings is examined. By analyzing the building from two perspectives simultaneously, it is aimed to find out if there is an observable correlation between comfort and energy aspects of the simulation.
In order to observe the change in the thermal comfort, the case building is simulated under five different settings. The iterations started with an ideal case, where the heating and cooling units had unlimited capacity. It proceeded with replacing the ideal units with designed ones then progressed with applying different scheduling, changing occupant position inside the room and installment of external shadings as the final case. From the simulation results it is found thatthe building showed best comfort performance with ideal or large capacity heaters and coolers
but it came with an overbearing energy cost. Taking pecific measures to reduce energy consumption have proved to be successful although sacrificing from comfort slightly.
The comparative analysis indicates that there is a semi-situational relationship between two aspects. While thermal comfort is relatively easy to maintain, keeping energy consumption atacceptable levels is equally hard. If the goal is to achieve a better grade of building certification,
it is a necessity to take improving measures for both aspects simultaneously.
},publisher={Institutionen för bygg- och miljöteknik, Installationsteknik , Chalmers tekniska högskola},place={Göteborg},year={2015},series={Examensarbete - Institutionen för bygg- och miljöteknik, Chalmers tekniska högskola, no: 2015:09},keywords={thermal comfort, annual energy demand, building certification, building simulation},note={75},}

RefWorks RT GenericSR ElectronicID 232472A1 Güngör, GökhanT1 Thermal Comfort and Energy Consumption Of a Typical Office Building - A parametric study using IDA ICEYR 2015AB According to Hoppe’s study (1998) most of the people living in urban areas are spending more than 90% of their time in air conditioned indoor spaces. Same study also suggests that estimated costs of unideal thermal environment are higher than the energy cost which would be spent to improve the conditions to the ideal standards. The traditional cost calculation methods usually take the energy demand of heating and cooling systems of the building into account; however the potential health and productivity benefits are often disregarded.
Thermal comfort has been studies in several ways. Theoretical studies were mostly based on energy equations which are built in between human and environment and required very extensive mathematical work. Practical studies on the other hand were done by experimenting
humans under various thermal environments, which were time consuming and could be misleading because of the personal opinions of people regarding to comfort. Compared those
two methods, measuring thermal comfort by using simulation software gave the benefit of both by being able to simulate many conditions at once and carrying out the huge mathematical work by the aid of computers. Increased reliability in the measurement incentivized several
standardization organizations around the world and standards are created.
In this report, how much of an impact do the selected parameters make on the thermal comfort and annual energy demand have been investigated by making experiments using a simulation software called IDA ICE (Indoor Climate and Energy) on an artificial building designed for a typical office use. In other words, the report aims to investigate what consequences occur when the actual conditions in the building are varied from the ideal state. As a secondary purpose of the study the annual energy demand of the building under different settings is examined. By analyzing the building from two perspectives simultaneously, it is aimed to find out if there is an observable correlation between comfort and energy aspects of the simulation.
In order to observe the change in the thermal comfort, the case building is simulated under five different settings. The iterations started with an ideal case, where the heating and cooling units had unlimited capacity. It proceeded with replacing the ideal units with designed ones then progressed with applying different scheduling, changing occupant position inside the room and installment of external shadings as the final case. From the simulation results it is found thatthe building showed best comfort performance with ideal or large capacity heaters and coolers
but it came with an overbearing energy cost. Taking pecific measures to reduce energy consumption have proved to be successful although sacrificing from comfort slightly.
The comparative analysis indicates that there is a semi-situational relationship between two aspects. While thermal comfort is relatively easy to maintain, keeping energy consumption atacceptable levels is equally hard. If the goal is to achieve a better grade of building certification,
it is a necessity to take improving measures for both aspects simultaneously.
PB Institutionen för bygg- och miljöteknik, Installationsteknik , Chalmers tekniska högskola,T3 Examensarbete - Institutionen för bygg- och miljöteknik, Chalmers tekniska högskola, no: 2015:09LA engLK http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/232472/232472.pdfOL 30